What Does Racism Look Like in Your Community?
Racism
What does racism look like in your community?
- Little representation in lawmaking community
- Very polite racism; exclusion going on but not stated outright
- Man in comm. Did anti-mosque mass mailing
- People easily swayed by stereotypes
- Personal experience of name-calling
- Passive aggressive experience in local attitudes
- Rarely see white people speak up in situations, or don’t know how to respond
- Kids end up naturally self-segregating; families don’t work on reaching out
- Denied a loan by just asking for more paperwork/delaying; silent refusing to act or say no
- If would like to have respect, must respect others. Difficult to begin conversations if don’t understand
- There is also blatant aggressions experienced by local POC
- Working within family
- Seeing police in other communities with higher minorities
- More similarities in racism across nation than people think
- Be an interruption, advocate for POC to be at tables and make decisions, then as white people, step away so they can lead
- Undoing institutional racism training. “Gatekeeping”
- Believe POC when they speak on their experience
- Terminology of “old Everett” as the paper brokers
- Mostly white neighborhood
- “We’re so white”
- Labeled by appearance
- Symbols – confederate flag
- Non-Acceptance of difference
- Not as overt
- Stereotypes, assumptions
- Fear, safety issues
- Microaggressions
- “Tribes don’t exist”
- Inequalities, white privilege
- Islamophobia
- Silent government officials
Institutions
Religious organizations - False idealism – “Racism is not here”
- Education system
- Talking with children
- Exclusion
- Denial
- No understanding of experiences
- Lack of intersectionality
- Outsource to government
- Limited tools/skills
- Law enforcement agencies
- Lack of accountability
- Disproportional leadership
- Racism is something parents teach
- Learned behavior
- Woven into each persons lived experience, roots. Connected to age, family, geography
- Cannot progress unless we admit it EXISTS
- It starts with You (take responsibility)
- Language/Questions “What are you?”
- Not much social intercourse between groups
- Assumptions about people/groups of color
- White America needs to commit to dismantling racism
- (White people, progressives) could get beyond complaining and reporting and go out and ally ourselves with people and issues that could use (need?) us
- Racism embedded and covered by pressure to be patriotic and nice, polite
- License to be overtly racist
- See Eliminationists - David Neiwert
- Local culture: “nice/nice.” Complacency, passive aggressive behavior. Must start speaking up, also “move out the way.”
- “Accomplice” not “ally”
(willing to put ass on line) - Church involvement
- Doesn’t show up – Is hidden behind excuses
- Subtle behaviors making people feel unwelcomed
- Hiring practices of organizations – Committees screening people put – Discrimination
- Us – Them conversations
- Post elections behaviors – Threats of deportation
- Receiving different treatment when financing for buying a house
- Unequal treatment of media portrayal of POC as “less than”
- Making assumptions based on a person’s name – Not American
- Masking racism in terms of concern about terrorism
- Feeling that you have to deny your heritage/culture to be accepted
- Threat of racial profiling w/ law enforcement
Racism in Criminal Justice = Big Impact
- Hard to perceive because of legal abstraction
- Healthcare is a leading voice in these issues
- How quality is the police de-escalation in our cities?
Experience = better training
State training available
What would it look like in your community if things were better?
- No nasty, prejudiced hate mail
- Wouldn’t feel fear
- People with different perspectives would be able to have real conversations
- Run for office to make a difference
- Equity and balance would be visible in all areas of life
- More inclusive curriculum in school
Would be able to judge/decide on which politicians to choose based on their abilities, not money they’ve raised - Equity- Pay teachers a living wage
- People would feel comfortable speaking out when “bad” things happen
- No income gap
- Access to education for everyone
- Common language
- Equity in safety
- Understanding through listening
- No confederate flags/hate symbols
- More POC in community
- Less segregation
- More POC in government, schools, leadership
- Community events
- Poverty, incarnation rates